Just looking at the look in Cao Rui's eyes, Zhao Wushu also knew that he really tried his best. He wanted to encircle and annihilate the main force of nearly 100,000 rebels in a short period of time. Too many new soldiers would definitely not work. If we really fight a defeat, I don't know how long we will have to wipe our butt afterwards. Once those defeated troops turn into bandits, they will harm the entire place. I don’t know how much effort it will take to clear them out.
At that time, I don’t know how much food will be wasted. A deserted army is a bandit; a defeated army is not as good as a bandit. Thinking of this, even though he still hesitated slightly, Zhao Wushu nodded in the end. When Zhao Wuye nodded, Cao Rui breathed a sigh of relief. He also knew that the young general in front of him was carrying an extremely heavy burden. But there was nothing he could do, he couldn't take out any more.
Twenty thousand of the troops and horses he brought south were in Ouyang Shan's hands. Coupled with the casualties in combat these days, the strength is not as good as before. Even if the imperial court gave him additional reinforcements, those new troops would need to mature before they reach the battlefield. There are only so many veterans in his hands, and giving five thousand troops and horses is already the limit. In many cases, it may affect the combat effectiveness of the team going south.
As for going south, he could only fight an encirclement and annihilation war, but he could never fight a defeat war. Because this battle turned into a defeat, it would be a shame for myself. After the war, I was even more careful about the harm to Jiangnan West Road. Now that I have fought a rout, I don’t know how long it will take to clear out those rout soldiers after the war. Maybe, the entire Jiangnan West Road will rot. Rather than doing this, it is better to let them go back to Guangnan East Road.
With a solemn expression, he reached out and patted Zhao Wushu on the shoulder. Cao Rui said in a deep voice: "General Zhao, as I said before, even Jiujiang Prefecture can give up if necessary. As long as we deal with the more elite Jiangnan The West Route rebels, even if Jiangning Mansion is lost, are just a scabies problem. When the time comes, we can turn around and deal with them. But it is difficult to find a general who can easily win an army."
"As long as you are alive, everything is possible. Therefore, you must take care of yourself and never fight to the death. In addition to gaining a false reputation, it will not be of any benefit to the court or the war situation. Military generals are not afraid of death, but not at this time. . Remember, I only want you to hold off the Huguang rebels for a month at most. Half of my army can return for reinforcements, so there is no need to argue with the rebels about the gains and losses of one city or one place."
After hearing Cao Rui's somewhat uneasy instructions, Zhao Wushu nodded solemnly. After Zhao Wushu left to make preparations, Cao Rui also began to adjust his arrangements. He knew that the rebels would definitely leave behind a strong force in De'an. Therefore, when deploying, he accepted Zhao Wushan's advice, boarded the ship with all the infantry in Duchang, Nankang Prefecture under his control, and headed south along the river.
At the same time, all the cavalry was concentrated, bypassing De'an in a parallel pursuit. And Zhao might as well mobilize a force to take over the army and stationed outside De'an. After Song Xuan gradually retreated with the main force, relying on the horses in his hands, it was impossible to really stop Deng Ming who was pursuing the army. Seeing Zhao Wusha instead of Cao Rui's army stationed outside De'an with more than 10,000 troops and horses, his face suddenly turned pale.
He suddenly remembered that Jiujiang Prefecture controlled the lake and the river, so the officers and soldiers might not really be able to take the land route when pursuing the army. If you take a boat down the lake and enter the Ganshui River, staying in De'an will have no meaning at all. The flags of the military horses outside the city now bear the name of Zhao, who is in charge of military affairs at various places on Jiedu Jiangnan West Road. They should be the military horses of Zhao Wushan, who had been fighting with him a few days ago.
As expected, Cao Rui's main force did not take the land route. For a moment, Deng Ming, who had no sense in holding on here, didn't know whether he should withdraw from De'an and chase the main force. Still here, we will continue to hold on for three days according to Song Yan's request. Thinking of Song Yan's words before leaving, Deng Ming hesitated. Touching the cannons on the top of the city, Deng Ming didn't know where to go for a while.
He turned around and looked at Deng Ming, who was timidly looking at his generals. He knew that none of the generals had the will to fight at all and that the battle could not be fought. After hesitating for a long time on the top of the city, he finally sent people to arrest all the die-hard elements, and sent people out of the city to discuss surrender with Zhao Wuyu. An hour later, Deng Ming led an army of 10,000 men and surrendered to Zhao Wuhe without firing an arrow.
To be honest, the De'an rebels surrendered so quickly that Zhao Wushu was caught off guard. Especially when he saw the 10,000 rebels in De'an surrendering more than 60 cannons, hundreds of crossbows, and all kinds of weapons, food and grass piled up in mountains, Zhao Wushu was stunned. He thought that he still had some troops left to control Ruichang. With less than 10,000 troops and horses outside De'an, the rebels would at least have a fight.
As a result, despite all his efforts, the rebels surrendered without firing an arrow. However, De'an's rebels voluntarily surrendered, which relieved Zhao Wushu a lot of pressure, at least he no longer had to be attacked on both sides. But even though De'an's rebels surrendered, Zhao Wushu did not feel relaxed. There were hundreds of thousands of people on the front line of Huguangtong City, and the rebels who could march eastward at any time also brought great pressure to him.
On the one hand, he scouted and rode in all directions, and on the other hand, he made frequent contact with the direction of Huguang in order to find out the movements of the Huguang rebels as soon as possible. But the news from Huguang puzzled him. After Deng Ming withdrew, the Huguang rebels completely stopped attacking. However, they neither advanced east nor retreated south, and all retreated to Pingjiang Prefecture. Moreover, the rebels on the front lines of the city retreated in an extremely hasty manner.
When leaving, even the heavy cannon was left behind. You know, the rebels were able to capture Changsha and Hengyang in Huguang thanks to these cannons weighing several kilograms. This siege weapon was thrown away so easily. Zhao Wushu was even more worried that the Huguang rebels might not advance eastward, but might go south. Thinking of this, Zhao Wushu immediately picked up his pen and wrote a letter to Cao Rui.
But after the letter was sent away in a hurry, Zhao Wushu pinched his forehead and kept thinking about how to fight the next battle. In fact, for Zhao Wushu, what he dislikes the most is this kind of active defensive combat. As a cavalry general, what he admires most is offense. Just looking at the army horse in his hand, Zhao Wushu hesitated again when he thought of the 10,000 prisoners.
Zhao Wushu was in De'an, thinking about what to do next. Cao Rui, whose troops were divided into two groups, personally led the cavalry and rushed outside Ruizhou Mansion ahead of Song Yan, who was mainly infantry. He preset the battlefield and chose between Jinshui and Hualinshui. There are rivers crisscrossing the area. Although the rebels have a large number of troops, they cannot form an integrated body due to the limitations of the water network. You can completely use the terrain to divide and annihilate them.
However, minus the 10,000 rebels who stayed in De'an, the rebels still numbered 90,000. Even when the infantry came down by boat, the strength of the troops was still very different. Therefore, Cao Rui, who already knew that Ouyang Shan had deployed in the south, did not intend to fight the rebels in Jinshui. His goal was to reduce the rebel force by half. As for the rest, leave it to the large group of cavalry led by Ouyang Shan.
In fact, when he first arrived at the Jiangnan battlefield, Cao Rui was not accustomed to it. Compared with the vast plains in the north, there are rivers and lakes everywhere here, making it impossible for the cavalry to move. Before the horses could exert their strength, they reached another river. In this kind of terrain, Cao Rui, who is good at using cavalry assaults, can only rely on infantry to fight, and he always feels that his hands are tied.
But when Song Yan's army pressed forward across the entire front, he discovered that this terrain indeed restricted the performance of his cavalry, but it also prevented the rebels from forming a complete front. Although it is not conducive to large-scale cavalry operations, it allows small cavalry groups to be fully utilized. When he was in Jiujiang Prefecture, he often used cavalry to make detours and raid the rear of the rebels. From time to time, there is also a small interlude.
Therefore, this time Cao Rui planned to use the rare hilly area between Jinshui and Hualinshui, as well as the two relatively larger rivers in front and behind, to prevent the rebels from forming a complete formation. Hit the center directly and separate it. The main force of the infantry waiting to come down by boat arrived and ate up his rearguard and center. Ouyang Shan, who was originally hiding in the south and waiting, is also speeding up his time to go north.
Compared with Cao Rui, who relied on the four legs of the cavalry to rush to Jinshui and was already waiting for him. It had been three days since they had withdrawn from De'an, but they had never been pursued by Cao Rui along the way. This made Song Yan, who retreated quickly, feel extremely uneasy in his heart. Cao Rui did not pursue him, which was really abnormal for him. The further away from Jiujiang Mansion, the more frightened he felt.
However, whether it was Song Yan who was retreating rapidly southward at this time, or Cao Rui, who had taken advantage of the speed of his cavalry and rushed to the north bank of Jinshui River, was setting up a net and waiting. Or Ouyang Shan, who had received Cao Rui's order and was waiting to roundabout his troops and head north, never thought about it. What was originally a pursuit battle will evolve into a battle of unprecedented scale involving hundreds of thousands of people.
At this time, Cao Rui still followed the original plan. After the main force of the rebels arrived, they spared the more than 10,000 rebel troops who were the first to cross Jinshui. After the rebel army had just crossed the Hualin River. Cao Rui, who was hiding in the Mi Mountain between the two, not only sent a force of troops and horses to block the north bank of Jinshui to intercept the rebel vanguard, he immediately commanded the cavalry and took the lead in attacking the rebel center.
Cao Rui did not bring many troops and horses at this time. Together with the poor cavalry in Zhao Wuye's hands, he had looted them. The 5,000 cavalry among the 20,000 new troops who had been reinforced this time were only 13,000. Thousands of people. But these military horses are all cavalry. Tens of thousands of horse hooves galloped rapidly, and the violent vibrations caused by their feet on the ground could be heard clearly from more than ten miles away.
Listening to the sound of horse hooves that shook the earth and mountains, Song Yan, who had just led the Chinese army across the Hualin River and was quickly turning towards the Jin River, immediately understood what had happened. He knew that the official army had cavalry, but he did not expect that the pursuit would be so fast. A large number of officers and soldiers appeared here. Either Deng Ming opened the city and surrendered after he left. It did not work at all and held back the expectations of the main force of the officers and soldiers for three days.
Either the officers and soldiers simply ignored Deng Ming, who was sticking to De'an, and ignored the risk of the supplies behind him being cut off, bypassing De'an and heading straight for him. But regardless of that possibility, it is not something Song Yan should consider now. He also knew that the most important thing for him to do now was to form a team to face the enemy. At least, Cao Rui's cavalry must not be allowed to overwhelm his central army.
There are indeed 90,000 troops under his command, but they are all infantry. The only three thousand cavalrymen are still fighting for themselves on the north bank of Hualin River. What's more, his three thousand cavalry all ride Dali horses no bigger than donkeys. There is no way to compare with today's official and army cavalry who all ride tall horses. The Dali horse has good endurance, but its sprinting is still far behind.
Song Xuan knew that once the overwhelming cavalry of the official army rushed into his central army, it would be a massacre for him. He must form a square formation against the cavalry before reinforcements from the two armies arrive, otherwise he will only be overwhelmed. Although the troops under his command were numerous, this was the first time for them to fight against such a large scale of cavalry. If they did not form a formation, they would die faster.
